Does LR,LF,RR,RF indicate where the tire was or where it should go next?

November 3, 2017 12:21 AM

I'm swapping to my winter tires. I finally bought all my own tools (jack, jackstands, torque wrenches, etc) to do it myself after years of taking it into the shop. There's chalk marking the tire as position, but does it typically indicate where the tire was or where it should be rotated to?
posted by wutangclan to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total)

You can call wherever you used to get your tires done to check, but when we do our own tires we mark where they are going to go when they are put back on, and this is also what the tire place we went to before we had rims did. This seems by far the most logical and non-confusing way to do it but there are no guarantees without asking whoever put the marks there.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:30 AM on November 3, 2017

Ha. The only time I've had to deal with this, it was the opposite of Charmed's experience: they were marked with the position they were taken from.

So... you'd better call.
posted by rokusan at 3:02 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

My experiences would align with rokusan's.
posted by wile e at 3:33 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've always marked where it was.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:12 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've always marked them where they were, too.
posted by Floydd at 6:13 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Tire shops mark them where they came off of.
posted by Mitheral at 6:18 AM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Whichever are more worn are the ones that will have most recently been on the drive wheels, assuming a 2WD vehicle. Make sure the less worn ones go on your drive wheels. IME, any car later than the mid 80s only wears unevenly left to right if something is adjusted wrongly or broken.
posted by wierdo at 6:43 AM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've only ever marked (or seen marked) where a tyre was fitted, not where it was going to. Conversely to charmedimsure it seems completely illogical to do it any other way!
posted by Brockles at 8:00 AM on November 3, 2017

Best answer: Huh! Apparently we are weird and so is our former tire shop. You should clearly ignore me and listen to these other people, wutangclan.
posted by charmedimsure at 8:55 AM on November 3, 2017

Response by poster: I’ve tried calling, but it’s that time of the year when everyone is putting on their snow tires and for the life of me the shop’s phone is either busy or unanswered!!! GRRRR

Anyway, the residual tire pressure implies to me that the chalk marks the last position, which is in agreement with majority opinion.

Thanks everyone.
posted by wutangclan at 10:02 AM on November 3, 2017

Response by poster: ...aaaaaaaaaaaannd after trying their phone number a dozen times over the last two days, I finally got through to the shop that took my tires off. They confirmed that they mark the tire with the corner that the wheel came off of.
posted by wutangclan at 1:03 PM on November 3, 2017